Fireside: A Forwarded Sermon

Paul’s first letter to Timothy is a charge to a young man who is just starting out in a pastorate. He was intimidated, as any young man who understands the calling rightfully should be. Timothy-called and surrendered- now must take charge of the ministry God has given him.

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The Book Stays

But as proof that there is staying power in the words of God: we do not just have a First Timothy, we have a Second also. Timothy lasted. Timothy stuck. Timothy fulfilled his ministry. He is called at the postscript of 2 Timothy 4, “The first bishop of the church of the Ephesians,… when Paul was brought before Nero the second time.”

Timothy persevered as the pastor of the first of the seven churches of Revelation, the church at Ephesus. After all Paul went through to plant that church (Acts 19), they left their first love (Rev. 2:4). They left that love so brazenly that the Lord holding seven candlesticks threatened to remove their light! (Rev. 2:5) Yet Timothy, Paul’s spiritual son, faithfully ministered in love and truth, until the end.

That perseverance of the first pastor of the first church is what is needed at the last church, and in the last church period.

The Problems Stay

Timothy is not the only young pastor who ever needed encouragement. Archippus was just another young ‘Timothy’ entering the ministry in a spiritually derelict, lukewarm church, the Colossian church, neighbor to the seventh church in Revelation, Laodicea. Archippus never got a personal letter from Paul, but he was just as overwhelmed. So, the Lord Jesus intended and preserved a message for him.

Will the Pastor Stay?

My imagination wanders to a middle-eastern Roman colony. The sun has just dipped below the horizon. A messenger arrives in the dark at the stone-walled hut of Pastor Archippus. He is in a hurry, possibly pursued by rioters seeking to make a martyr out of him. He knocks on the hinged, thick wooden planks. The door eases open a sliver. Darkness meets darkness thru the opening.

“Who is it?” muffles through the crack.

“I am Onesimus. I have a message for Archippus” comes the reply. “And a letter. From Laodicea.”

“Laodicea!” Archippus hisses incredulously. “Can any good thing come out of Laodicea?“

The messenger, undaunted, slips a scroll through the door. Archippus reaches out to take it. As he lays hold, Onesimus draws close, keeping his firm grip on the scroll also. Archippus’ leans out the door, his wearied face coming into full view. Flickering light from a distant streetside torch illumines their faces, the first and last time they will ever meet. Onesimus confidently reflects the tremulous gaze of Archippus. Breaking the silence between them, he whispers,

“Archippus, I have a message from Paul for thee: ‘Take heed to the ministry which thou hast received in the Lord, that thou fulfil it.'”¹

Onesimus presses the bundled parchment over Archippus’ heart. “Farewell, fellow-soldier.” With that, he releases the letter and slips back into the twilight. Archippus watches the shadow dissolve into the landscape, then slowly closes and bolts the door behind him.

Archippus draws open the cord and lays the parchment before him.

He is worn out.

He is used up.

He is cynical.

But with the exhortation, “fellow-soldier,”³ echoing in his ears, he lights a candlestick. The flame pours over the page of the book we now know as 1 Timothy. Archippus squints his dry, weary eyes as they drink in the words renewing his spirit.

“If Timothy can do it… so can I.”

Footnotes:

1. Colossians 4:17 ↩︎
2. Photo by Anugrah Lohiya on Pexels.com ↩︎
3. Philemon 1:2 ↩︎